Boat and ship spotters in Palma may now have fewer cruise ships to study, but they are being compensated by the regular appearance of floating palaces that are the possessions of the world's mega-rich.
On Friday in the bay of Palma, not one but two of these coincided. Competing for attention were Zen, which belongs to the Chinese founder of Alibaba, Jack Ma, and Koru, the proud possession of the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. So, not only was this a meeting of two super superyachts, it was one involving two of the planet's main e-commerce companies; there clearly is money to be made from e-commerce.
In the case of Koru, this is in fact a super sailboat. It cost around 500 million dollars and is 127 metres in length, the second largest super sailboat in the world. The largest belongs to a Russian, Andrey Melnichenko, who made his money from fertiliser. The Russian billionaire is currently unable to enjoy Sailing Yacht A, as the Italian authorities seized it in Trieste in March last year.
There is anticipation that both Bezos and Ma will soon be in Mallorca; quite possibly even this weekend.